The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-03-26
MEMS NERVOUSNESS.
Nervous Prostitution an Addiction Which
Haunts Men Equally with Women.

The physiologies tell us that nervous
ness is the peculiar attribute to women,
May not this be because it is unusually
men who write the physiologies, so that
woman might perhaps say, like the
lions in Esop's fable, that if the other
party had been the painters the case
would be different? Itwould be worth
while to consult the wife of the musical
enthusiast, for instance, who has car
ried his art to such point that it
causes him and everybody else moro
pain than pleasure, the man who must
have every door in the house deadened,
every carpet doubled; every visitor
seen by some one else before admit
lance, and the children banished to
regions inaccessible and inaudible.
Paganini, the greatest of violinists, is
reported to have found existence an
absolute burden because it held so
many intolerable sounds; and many a
woman has found her husband, even
where unprofessional, claiming the
privilege of Paganini's sensitiveness
without his genius Again, consider
the extremely nervous condition ex-
hibited by some perfectly healthy men
when called upon to appear before the
public to make few remarks, or
even introduce a speaker.
The terrors of nervous prostitution
that calamity which seems a new foe,
but is really only a new name for an
old one-haunt men almost equally
with women. If men hold out longer
against its approaches, which is doubt
full, they succumb almost more hope
lessly, and need longer for a cure. ]
know young men of fine physique who.
having for year or two undertaken
to combine too many different ankle
ties-for instance, a bread-earning oc-
cupation and the study of a profession
have taken to their bed in utter help
lessness and frequent tears, and re-
manned there for years. "More pangs
and fears than wars OF women have"
were their penalty for an over-taXation
of the nervous system. The fact that,
as the life insurance companies tell us,
women on the whole outlive men,
seems to indicate that their nerves, il
more sensitive than those of men, are
more elastic, and offer better re ist-
ancc to the wear and tear of events; for
we must remember that it is not the
great things of life which prove ex-
hausting, but the small ones, because
these call out less in the way of re-
sources to meet them, just as people
take cold more readily after a warm
bath than after cold one, for want OF
reaction.
There exists in every household a
short and easy method of testing the
comparative nervousness of the sexes.
Take the very sweetest and most do
nestle of men, the most hometown
and equable, and see if he can have
patience with the children, day in and
day out, as can a wife much less gifted
by nature with these fine qualities. The
children may be the sweetest ever
born, and yet each will be pretty sure
to pass through stages in its develop
ment when its cross-questionings its
Notwithstanding, its cronic deafnesses,
its endless WHAT" and "Why?" and
"Whom did you say?" will furnish
grounds for practice for saintship. Not
that all mothers are equal to this task
far from it; but when it comes to
nerves, the average mother takes all
this trial and pressure in way that
puts the average father to shame. l
knew a shrewd woman who, whenever
her husband had given her lecture on
nervousness, used to contrive to have
him dress one or two of the children
for school on a winters morning,
after breakfast slightly be-
lated. The good man would
fall meekly into the trap, not clearly
remembering the vastncss of the la
bor-the adiustings and the tyings and
the buttonings; the leggings and the
overdrawers and the arctic shoes; the
jacket, scarf, coat, gloves, mittens
wristers; the hat or cap or hood, to b,
pulled and pushed and tied in proper
position; the complete way in which al
these things, besides being put on
have to be mutually made fast by
strings and buttons and safety-pins So
that the child thus dressed is mode
of compressed packing, and could, lik'
well-packed barrel of china, be sen
around the world without injury
Calm must be the spirit, high the pur
pose, of the father who reaches the enc
, of this complex task without a word o
Impotence, while the wife whom h
calls nervous has long since taken Of
his hand the other child assigned t.
, him, and has long since with def
hands dressed her, and given on
, patient, final, all comprehendin,
. twitch, and the whole thing is done
Z, If Won dOuht HUhatbar mon ora ~, tb